Monumental effort pays off in Stroudsburg

Shari Chambers appears to have won a final battle in her crusade to erect a commemorative plaque for 24 Monroe County "colored" soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

DAVID PIERCE

Shari Chambers appears to have won a final battle in her crusade to erect a commemorative plaque for 24 Monroe County "colored" soldiers who fought in the Civil War.

For decades, she fought for recognition of the troops — many of them her ancestors. Now funding is in place, wording of an inscription has been finalized after agonizing debate and revisions, and Stroudsburg Borough Council has approved its placement at Helen Amhurst Third Street Park.

The plaque will go up this fall.

It won't be placed across the street in front of the historic Little Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, as she originally hoped and expected. But the 24-inch by 36-inch cast aluminum sign will list the names of all 24 Union soldiers — in addition to the originally planned description of their service.

"There has been divine intervention throughout this process," Chambers said after finalizing the plaque's placement with borough Public Works Director Brian Bond. "It's a finale in one chapter for men of all colors to be recognized for laying down their lives. They didn't have to go. They were free."

The Monroe County "colored" troops who fought in segregated units included full-blooded American Indians as well as free men of African descent, she said.

Many fought with the famed 54th Massachusetts Infantry that was the subject of the movie "Glory." Many took part in the siege of Confederate forts in South Carolina and the Battle of Olustee, Fla. Some returned north and fought the closing battles of the war in Virginia.

Among them:

Moses Washington was wounded twice — first at Olustee in February 1864, then in August 1864 near Deep Bottom, Va. — but survived after months of hospitalization after the second encounter. Farmer George Johnson was captured at Olustee and likely watched as Confederates systematically killed other captured black prisoners, as is detailed in papers on file at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. His own comrades thought Johnson, too, had been killed, but he was among a number of other black soldiers who suffered privations of the infamous Andersonville prison camp. Amos Huff, 18, when he entered the army, was killed in action at Olustee.

Chambers grew up attending that church, whose original pastor — Samuel Huff — was her direct full-blooded Lenni Lenape ancestor, she said. The church closed in the early 1970s as the aging membership died. The small brick building was abandoned and deteriorated.

Chambers founded a group to champion its restoration but was forced out after she strongly objected to plans to turn the church into a local history museum. The original covenant calls for it to remain a church forever, Chambers said.

The Little Bethel Historical Association, successor to Chambers' group, has replaced the roof and performed other maintenance.

Chambers' efforts to place the plaque near the borough sidewalk in front of the church ran into opposition from Historical Association board members about the wording.

They argued that references to "The Lord Jesus Christ" or "Almighty God" might run afoul of the constitutional separation of church and state and governmental regulations. They also questioned whether Chambers had sufficiently documented the presence of local native Americans in the Civil War and the church's founding.

Chambers points to the childhood stories of her Aunt Lena McCoy, the help of the Monroe County Historical Association in researching the veterans and correspondence with museums and government archivists in establishing native American roots.

Rebecca Borbidge, a legislative aide to state Rep. Mario Scavello, R-176, helped fax proposed inscriptions to various agencies. The Monroe County commissioners provided a $2,000 grant from the county's hotel tax fund for the plaque.

"Each department, state and federal, have assisted in the verbiage content I submitted to the Monroe County commissioners regarding its funding, and the Stroudsburg Borough Council for its placement approval," Chambers said.

Chambers was recently joined at Amhurst Park — named after her grandmother — by her mother, Joan Chambers, and 85-year-old Joseph Ray Johnson. She was pleased with the plaque's placement.

"People see the plaque, they see the verbiage and the history and they see the church over there," Chambers said, gesturing to her right.

Johnson is a minister in the non-denominational Transport for Christ International, which ministers to truckers. Johnson, who traces his Lenni Lenape Indian ancestry to Smithfield Township, is the great, great grandson of a Ray who married Little Bethel Church founder Samuel Huff.

"Five of those people who are going to be on that plaque are related to me," Johnson said.

When a price quote to manufacture and install the plaque came in at $2,575 — more than the $2,000 original estimate — majority commissioners said they couldn't provide additional money.

"Any additional costs must come from you or other sources," Greg Christine, the commissioners' chief clerk, wrote to Chambers in April. "If the cost of the marker exceeds the $2,000 allocation, you must provide proof that the additional funds have been secured."

J&C Granite & Bronze Company, of Simpson, was contacted by Chambers and it agreed to do the entire job for $2,000, donating its labor costs. J&C also agreed to add the names of all 24 veterans, in addition to the description of their service.

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